"Green Ones and Black
Ones"The Most Common Field Pieces of the Civil WarBy James Morgan

At
the beginning of 1861, the American field artillery consisted almost exclusively of
pre-Mexican War smoothbores not significantly different from the pieces with which we
fought the Revolution. By 1865 however, advances in metallurgy combined with new
manufacturing techniques, better powder, and more dependable fuses to bring muzzle-loading
artillery to its highest possible state of effectiveness.
This article will attempt to provide reenactors
with some useful background information about the artillery pieces, old and new, which
were most commonly used during the war. In that sense, it is a follow-up to the author's
earlier contribution, "Mounted But Not Mounted: The Confusing Terminology of
Artillery," which appeared in the March 1990 Camp Chase Gazette.
First however, some definitions. Early field
artillery was identified by the term "pounder" (usually abbreviated
"pdr"), which referred to the weight of the solid shot fired by a particular
size gun. Thus a 12-pdr gun was called that because it fired a solid round shot weighing
12 pounds. With the development of howitzers in the 17th century, the term became
obsolete, though it continued to be used right up through the Civil War.
"Howitzers," technically speaking,
are not "guns." They are shorter, lighter pieces than guns of the same bore
diameter, have chambered bores, use smaller charges, fire explosive shells instead of
solid shot, and were meant, essentially, to lob their projectiles at low velocity into a
target.
Guns are longer and heavier. They use larger
charges and have untapered (unchambered) bores of a consistent diameter all the way to the
breech. They were originally intended for relatively long range pounding or battering
(thus the word, "battery") of targets with projectiles fired at high velocity.
These distinctions had blurred considerably by
the time of the Civil War, but the terms continued in use. Howitzers, in any case, had
come to be manufactured in the same standard bore sizes as guns, so the
"pounder" designation of a particular gun was automatically applied to the
howitzer of the same bore size.
A Model 1841 12-pdr gun, for example, had a
4.62 inch bore. The Model 1841 howitzers of the same bore size were therefore called
"12pdrs" even though their hollow shells usually weighed less (though, depending
on how they were packed, could weigh more) than 12 pounds. In short, by the time of the
war, "pounder" actually referred to bore size rather than to projectile weight.
Not long ago, the author heard someone say
that, based on what we see on the battlefields, there must have been only two types of
cannon used during the war - "green ones and black ones." Of course he was
joking but that, in fact, is not a bad starting point for a discussion of Civil War field
artillery.
The "green ones" obviously are the
bronze (sometimes called "brass") pieces, usually smoothbores, which have
weathered to a pale greenish hue. Their designs generally pre-date the war by from five to
20 years. The "black ones," for the most part, are the iron rifles which were
being developed just as the war began.
When the fighting actually started, the
armament of the field artillery consisted only of "green ones." There were six
altogether, though one, the little 12-pdr "mountain howitzer," saw such limited
use during the conflict that it will not be considered here.
The five main pieces were the Model 1841 6-pdr
and 12-pdr guns, the Model 1841 12-pdr and 24-pdr howitzers, and the Model 1857 Light
12-pdr Gun-Howitzer, or "Napoleon."
Larger pieces such as the 24-pdr gun and 32-pdr
howitzer could also be used in the field, but only with difficulty due to their size and
weight. Technically, these are classed as "siege" pieces, rather than ''field''
pieces.
Note again that these smoothbores were all
there was. There were no rifled field pieces in the U.S. service before 1861.
Let us take them one at a time.

Model 1841 6-pdr Gun The 6-pdr was a popgun. Used extensively
during the Mexican War, it was made obsolete by the increased range of the available
infantry weapons as much as by the coming of better artillery.
Though fairly mobile at 900 pounds, it's
softball-sized shot was entirely too small to do much damage and it could easily be
outranged, especially once rifled guns came into play. Most sources give it a range of
about 1500 yards, but this is being generous. No doubt the gun could throw a shot that far
but, at that distance, it's small round projectile could hardly be accurate and would be
easy for troops to avoid.
These guns existed in large numbers at the
outbreak of hostilities, however, and were pressed into service by both sides. Both sides
also got rid of them as quickly as possible.

Model 1841 12-pdr Gun Packing a solid punch and having a respectable 1600-1700
yard effective range, the 12-pdr was a much better weapon than its little brother. But its
weight (1800 lbs) was a liability, just about at the top limit for the requirements of
mobility in the field.

Model 1841 12-pdr Howitzer This was by far the most effective field piece of the war
for use at any range under 400 yards. Its large shells gave it firepower, while its light
weight (less than 800 lbs) made it highly mobile and easy to position, even by hand.
Because of its mobility, the piece was readily
adaptable for close infantry support. Nine of them were supposed to have followed the
infantry in Pickett's Charge so as to protect its flanks and render whatever service they
could in front. However some confusion of orders and effective Federal artillery fire
during the pre-charge cannonade resulted in the nine pieces being unavailable. It is
interesting to speculate what difference they might have made had they accompanied
Pickett's troops. The 12-pdr howitzer's great weakness was its effective range, which is
not much over 1,000 yards, well under that of even the 6-pdr gun. It made the piece an
easy target for other artillery.

Model 1841 24-pdr Howitzer When positioned in field
fortifications, these were extremely useful pieces of ordnance because of their powerful
5.82 inch shells. Their 1400 pound weight made them a bit unwieldy in the field, and their
1300-1400 yard effective range put them at a disadvantage to other pieces. Nevertheless,
infantrymen could not have relished the idea of charging a battery of 24-pdr howitzers.
E. Porter Alexander, General Longstreet's de
facto Chief of Artillery for much of the war, called them "my favorite guns."
(Alexander, p. 182) On occasion, he even had them mounted on skids and used as mortars.

Model 1857 Light12-pdr Gun Howitzer Undoubtedly the best known field piece
of the war, the "Napoleon" was a kind of hybrid in that it could do everything
the other four smoothbores could do. It had more firepower than the 6-pdr gun, weighed 600
pounds less than the old 12-pdr gun, was every bit as sturdy as the bigger 24-pdr
howitzer, and could fire shot or shell, with effect, to 1700 yards.
In another sense however, it was not a hybrid
at all as it possessed none of the technical features of a howitzer - notably, it lacked a
chambered bore - and was called a howitzer only because it could fire shell.
The basic Napoleon came from the French Emperor
Louis Napoleon, who in the early 1850's ordered his Ordnance Department to design
something with which he could standardize his field artillery. Not only would such
standardization save money, but it would greatly simplify the manufacture, supply, and
distribution of the guns themselves, not to mention their carriages, implements, and
ammunition.
Unlike many hybrids, the Napoleon was a
resounding success. It greatly impressed the three-man American military commission which
toured Europe in 1855-56 (one of whose members was George McClellan). On their return,
they brought back the specifications of the new French gun, and a recommendation that it
be seriously considered for the American service. About a year later, with minor
modifications, it was formally adopted.
Strangely, (or perhaps not so strangely, given
the Congress's well-known lack of interest in the military during peacetime), only five
Napoleons were purchased for the army between 1857 and the outbreak of the war. One of
these was used for proofing. The other four were given to Battery M, 2nd U.S. Artillery at
Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, in late 1857.
It was no coincidence that the new guns went to
that particular unit. Battery M's commander was Capt. Henry Hunt, acknowledged even then
as one of America's premier artillerists. Hunt later brought the guns to First Manassas
where they were the only Napoleons on the field and where, without infantry support, they
broke up a Confederate flank attack on the beaten Union army as it retreated toward
Centerville late in the day. Hunt actually was credited by General Winfield Scott with
saving the Union army that day. He went on to become the Army of the Potomac's Chief of
Artillery. The Federal government quickly began ordering more Napoleons.
General McClellan, as part of his
reorganization of the army, ordered that all four Model 1841's be replaced with Model
1857's, which is precisely what had been intended when the Napoleon was first adopted.
This process was begun immediately, though logistics problems and the emphasis on the war
in the East resulted in the western Federal armies using the old models much longer than
did the Army of the Potomac.
The Confederates, without the Union's
industrial capacity, were required to keep the older guns and howitzers in service
throughout the war. In December of 1862, General Lee suggested that all 6-pdrs be melted
down and recast into Napoleons. Though a few were recast right away, it was not until
after Chancellorsville that the Army of Northern Virginia managed to replace even these
smallest of the 1841's with Confederate-made or captured pieces.
Just under 1200 Napoleons were produced for the
Union army during the war. The Confederates produced some 500-600 of their own, though
these came in several styles. The early Southern pieces closely resembled the Model 1857,
while later designs eliminated the distinctive muzzle swell and otherwise changed the
appearance of the piece.
Shortages of bronze ultimately required
Richmond to manufacture Napoleons of cast iron. These were strengthened with breech
reinforcing bands which made them look rather like fat Parrott rifles. For convenience
however, all of these Confederate-made models are simply called "Napoleons."
The reader should note that all
Napoleons were 12-pdrs. Occasionally, someone will write or speak of "6-pdr
Napoleons," but this is a misnomer, as there was no such thing.
Before moving on to a discussion of "the
black ones," it might be useful to note something of the use of particular metals for
particular field pieces.
The early United States used bronze (an alloy
of approximately 90% copper and 10% tin) for most of its field artillery. This was the
traditional material and was used by the big European powers. Around the turn of the 19th
century, the factors of cost and supply combined to bring about a switch to iron.
Bronze was 5-6 times more expensive than iron
on a per-piece basis. Moreover, while there were large deposits of iron ore in the United
States, there was little available copper or tin and foreign sources of supply would most
likely be cut off during a war. Thus, the "Iron Age" of American artillery began
in 1801.
For a variety of reasons mostly involving the
domestic politics of the day, the Iron Age ended with a return to bronze around 1835.
Bronze is a better material for smoothbore artillery anyway. It is not brittle like cast
iron and though it will wear and even stretch, it is much less subject to bursting.
With the return to bronze came design
experiments which resulted in the Models of 1841. These, as we have seen, remained the
standards until the coming of the war demanded their replacement.
The Napoleon was a significant step forward
which took the smoothbore concept about as far as it could go. But the real advances in
field artillery during the Civil War came with the development of iron rifles with their
great ranges and astounding accuracy.
Early in the war, it was thought that the need
for rifled guns could be met quickly and easily by rifling existing smoothbores. As a
rifle's elongated solid shot (called a "bolt") weighed about twice as much as a
smoothbore's round shot of the same diameter, doing this seemed to offer the promise of
magically turning 6-pdr smoothbores into 12-pdr rifles.
Charles T. James - inventor, militia general,
and former U.S. Senator from Rhode Island - made one of the first attempts at rifling
bronze guns and created the short-lived "James Rifles." Some of these were
merely re-bored 6-pdrs. Others were manufactured from scratch, with one style resembling
the old guns and another looking very much like the sleek 3-inch Ordnance Rifles.
Unfortunately, none of them worked very well as
friction from the projectiles quickly wore down the soft bronze, in effect turning the
guns back into smoothbores. The experiment of rifled bronze field pieces was abandoned
early.
Curiously though, the 2nd Connecticut Battery
was still armed with four James Rifles and two old 12-pdr howitzers as late as Gettysburg.
It was the only battery in the Army of the Potomac not then equipped with Napoleons or
with one of the iron rifles.
Two of the Ordnance-pattern James Rifles now
mark the position of the 2nd Connecticut at Gettysburg (Hancock Avenue, just south of the
large Pennsylvania monument).
The two most important "black ones"
were the Parrott Rifle and the Ordnance (often misspelled "ordinance") Rifle.
Other types were tried, but none were produced in as large quantities or saw as extensive
use as these two.

Model 1861 2.9-inch and Model 1863 3-inch Parrott Rifles Captain Robert P. Parrott resigned from
the army in 1836 to take over as superintendent of the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring,
New York. He had long been interested in the problems of cast iron artillery and tried
various experiments to overcome those problems. Apparently concluding that it was not
possible to improve the metal itself, Parrott decided to create a stronger piece by
reinforcing the cast iron with a band of wrought iron shrunk around the breech, the point
of greatest pressure during firing. This was critical because rifles, with their
tight-fitting projectiles, generated much greater internal pressures than did smoothbores.
The idea was not new, nor did Parrott claim it
as his own. But he did devise a better method of manufacturing banded guns.
Typically guns to be banded were held in place
while the band was heated, fitted, then allowed to cool (ie, shrink) onto the breech. The
problem was that gravity acted on the cooling metal to pull it downward so that the fit
around the breech was uneven.
Parrott's innovation was to slowly rotate the
gun tube throughout the fitting and cooling so that the metal would retain a consistent
density and cool evenly. In his larger guns, he also used the Rodman method of piping
water into the bore to help ensure even cooling. The result was guns which were much
stronger at the breech than normal cast iron guns. He hoped this would prevent bursting, a
long-recognized problem even with the lower pressure cast iron smoothbores.
Parrott's first model was a 2.9-inch 10-pdr
developed in 1859-60, but finally known as the Model 1861. It is easily distinguished from
his Model 1863 by the muzzle swell which was eliminated on the later piece.
Parenthetically, though Confederate-made Parrotts do have the muzzle swell, they may be
readily distinguished from the Federal-made 1861's by looking at the forward edge of the
breech reinforce. On Federal guns, the edge is vertical (perpendicular to the bore), while
on the Southern 10-pdrs, it is bevelled.
One of the first Parrotts was sold to the
Commonwealth of Virginia in the summer of 1860. In light of the worsening political
situation in the country, Virginia had inventoried its state arsenals and decided to
upgrade from the approximately four dozen 6-pdrs which were all it then had in its
possession.
Francis H. Smith, superintendent of the
Virginia Military Institute and an old army friend of Robert Parrott's, visited Cold
Spring, watched tests of the new 10-pdr and ordered one for further testing back home.
When it arrived at VMI, the gun was turned over
to the school's instructor of artillery, Professor Thomas J. Jackson, not yet known as
"Stonewall." Jackson, a former artillery officer, conducted a series of firing
tests and pronounced himself thoroughly satisfied with the gun. Its accuracy at ranges
well over a mile made it an impressive piece. Another dozen immediately were purchased
from the West Point Foundry. Using the specifications and models obtained from Cold
Spring, Tredegar and other southern foundries manufactured the piece during the war.
Ironically, one of those Virginia Parrotts was the first of its type to be fired in anger,
as it was used against United States troops at Big Bethel on June 10, 1861. Only three
weeks earlier, the Federal army had taken delivery of its first Parrotts.
For all of Robert Parrott's improvements and
Stonewall Jackson's enthusiasm, the Parrott rifles proved a major disappointment. They
were still cast iron pieces and they still burst unexpectedly and often. All Parrott had
really managed to do was move the bursting point forward. Strengthened at the breech,
Parrotts became infamous for bursting at the center near the trunnions.
The real difficulty was the gun's
unpredictability. Some Parrotts served long and dependably, firing several thousand rounds
with no problem. But cast iron cannon tended not to show wear and tear. The metal simply
gave way whenever it gave way, after few rounds or many, so there always was a high level
of uncertainty in connection with the use of cast iron guns.
Private Augustus Buell of Battery B, 4th U.S.
Artillery (a Napoleon battery) later noted, perhaps with some sarcasm, that "so long
as the Parrott gun held together it was as good as any muzzleloading rifle." (Buell,
p. 22)
Unfortunately for the crews who worked them,
Parrotts too often failed to hold together and became extremely unpopular with
artillerymen. Buell himself best expressed the common view when he later said, "If
anything could justify desertion by a cannoneer, it would be an assignment to a Parrott
battery." (Buell, p. 147)
Another less dangerous problem with the 1861s
was its 2.9-inch bore. The Ordnance rifle was a 3-incher and the two guns could fire some
of the same ammunition. More than once, 3-inch ammunition was issued to crews of 2.9-inch
guns, causing delays and ammunition jams.
The Parrott Model 1863 was a 3-inch piece
created specifically to alleviate this problem. Additionally, some 2.9-inch guns were
re-bored to 3 inches. But it was too late. Though the 3-inch Parrotts continued to be
purchased by the Federal government through 1865, the army began phasing them out in favor
of Ordnance Rifles mid-way through the war. At the beginning of the Wilderness campaign in
May 1864, only five of the 49 batteries in the Army of the Potomac (excluding the IX Corps
which was not technically under General Meade's command) were Parrott batteries, the
others being armed either with Napoleons or Ordnance Rifles.
Even with its weaknesses, the 2.9-inch Parrott
was an important artillery piece. In 1861 it was the first workable rifled gun available
to either side. For the Union, it could be produced quickly, inexpensively, and in large
numbers.
Altogether some 500-600 Model 1861 and 1863
10-pdr Parrotts were produced for the Union army. Perhaps another 150 came from
Confederate factories. The end of the war, however, brought the end of the Parrott, for
the gun was never used agaln.

Model 1861 3-inch Ordnance Rifle Unquestionably the best rifled gun of its day was the
3-inch Ordnance Rifle. Originally called "Griffin Guns," after their designer,
John Griffen, the Ordnance Rifles were often mistakenly called "Rodman Guns"
because of their superficial resemblance to the large Rodman coastal defense smoothbores.
In fact, however, there was no connection.
Wrought iron was expensive and had been
difficult to work with, which explains why it wasn't successfully developed earlier for
artillery. But in 1854, Griffen modified a procedure then being used in the production of
wrought iron for lighthouse construction. (For a detailed explanation of this complex
procedure, which involved welding together bundles of wrought iron rods then passing the
whole through a rolling mill, see Hazlett, pp.120-29.)
The new technique resulted in an enormously
strong gun tube. When first tested in 1856, the Griffen Gun amazed the representatives of
the Ordnance Department. Griffen himself challenged them to burst the piece. After more
than 500 rounds with increasing charges and loads, they finally succeeded only by firing
it with a charge of seven pounds of powder and a load of 13 shot which completely filled
up the bore! (Hazlett, p. 121)
The bursting problem was solved. What plagued
the Parrott was virtually nonexistent in the wrought iron gun. Only one Ordnance Rifle is
known to have burst during the entire Civil War (a gun in a Pennsylvania battery burst at
the muzzle - the safest place for a gun to burst if it must do so) while firing double
canister during the Battle of the Wilderness.
The "3-inch wrought iron rifle" had a
slightly greater effective range than the Parrott and compared favorably even with the
British Whitworth for accuracy. "The Yankee three-inch rifle was a dead shot at any
distance under a mile," said one admiring Confederate gunner (Hazlett, p. 120) and it
was quite effective at a mile and a half.
On top of all of this, the gun was a hundred
pounds lighter than the Parrott (800 lbs to the Parrott's 900) which made it highly
mobile. For just this reason, it was the preferred weapon of the Horse Artillery (that is,
those batteries working with cavalry and therefore requiring maximum mobility).
The Ordnance Rifle, not to put too fine a point
on it, was a nearly perfect field piece. The absolute epitome of muzzle-loading artillery,
it remained the primary rifled field gun in the U. S. inventory well into the 1880's when
it finally gave way to steel breechloaders. About a thousand of these remarkable guns were
produced for the Union army. Lacking the technology, the Confederates did not produce
them.
In summary, then, there were but seven pieces
of artillery which did the bulk of the cannoneer's work during the Civil War. These were
the Model 1841 6-pdr and 12-pdr guns, the Model 1841 12-pdr and 24-pdr howitzers, the
Model 1857 Light 12pdr gun-howitzer, the Model 1861/ 1863 Parrott (which, for our
purposes, can be considered as a single type), and the Model 1861 Ordnance Rifle.
The last two of these, in particular,
demonstrate the tremendous advancement in artillery made during the four years of the war.
The leap from smoothbores to rifles was the first necessary step in the development of
modern artillery.
Indeed, the gap between even the best of the
smoothbores and the least effective of the rifles serves to illustrate the old truism that
our great l9th century bloodletting was, at one and the same time, the last 18th century
war and the first 20th century war.

Partial bibliography and suggestions for additional
reading:

John Gibbon, "The Artillerist's Manual", D.
Van Nostrand, 1860 (reprinted by Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn., 1970).
William E. Birkhimer,"Historical Sketch of the Organization, Administration,
Materiel, and Tactics of the Artillery, United States Army", Thomas McGill & Co.,
Washington, DC, 1884.
Augustus Buell, "The Cannoneer", The National Tribune, Washington, DC, 1890.
Fairfax Downey, "The Guns At Gettysburg", David McKay & Co., NY, 1958.
L. Van Loan Naisawald, "Grape and Canister: The Story of the Field Artillery of the
Army of the Potomac", Zenger Publishing Co., Washington, DC, 1960.
James C. Hazlett (et. al.), "Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War",
University of Delaware Press, 1983.
Gary Gallagher, Ed., "E. Porter Alexander, Fighting for the Confederacy",
University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

About the Author: Jim Morgan has been involved in Civil
War living history since 1980 when he spent on summer as a seasonal ranger with the
National Park Service at Gulf Islands National Seashore in Pensacola, Fla. His
primary interests are artillery and Civil War music. He has reenacted both Union and
Confederate artillery and infantry over the years. Jim has written several articles for the
reenactor's publication, "Camp chase Gazette," and has produced two tapes of
Civil War music titled "Just Before the Battle" and "60's Music."
He holds master's degrees in Political Science and Library Science and currently
works in Washington, DC, as Acquisitions Librarian at the U.S. Information Agency.
He lives in Lovettsville, Va, and serves on the board of the Loudoun County Civil War
Round Table.

This article originally appeared in
the June 1996 issue of Camp Chase Gazette ( Vol. XXIII, No. 7 ) and is published here with
the permission of the author.